Pot de chrysanthèmes roses 1940

Here's Sanyu's Pot de chrysanthèmes roses, and I can just imagine the painting of this – the artist building up these pink blooms, layer after layer. I really feel for Sanyu; you know, being stuck between cultures, trying to make it as an artist. There's something about the fragility of these blooms against the darkness of the background that speaks to that feeling. He’s conjured a world of feeling on this canvas. The paint isn’t too thick, but there’s a definite texture to it. See how the pink almost glows against the dark vertical marks behind? It's like he's not just painting flowers, but painting the feeling of flowers, the memory of them, the hope of them. It has echoes of Matisse, that same love of simple forms and bright color, but Sanyu brings his own kind of melancholic poetry to it. It's like they are all in conversation together! Each artist speaking their own language of paint. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.